The Sirens’ Song to the U.N. Security Council: Monday, July 10, 2017

The Sirens’ Song to the U.N. Security CouncilMonday, July 10, 2017
Cindy Potts

We reject
unequivocally
the label of terrorist.
We are artists.
Nothing more
And
nothing less.
Oppressors often get the two confused.
When the deathbringers came to the sea
with harpoon, hook,
stone-weighted nets
we sang them songs of home.
Lilting and familiar,
comforting and safe,
drawn from cradle memory,
sung in a lover’s tongue.
Ships make their own music
as they splinter
on desolate, deceitful shores;
we danced to it gleefully
knowing our beloveds
were safe
a day longer.
The fish crawled
from salt to sand
and us?
We the journey made.
The wind pushes.
The moon pulls.
Waves and dunes
are much the same.
Here the deathbringers
hunt the heavens
with camera eyes
and hellfire missles.
We sing them songs of home.
Lullabies and love songs
have given way
to Latitude and Longitude.
We learn the tunes
drones want to hear
And with prayerful fingertips
teach chirping birds to sing it where they go –
deep in the desert, not far off course –
pushing noise into signal,
signal into noise,
everywhere, everywhere
until death,
as she should,
flies blind.
Shores of rubble, waves of sand,
the remnants of our homes;
here we sing the loudest.
With such brilliant, brutal confidence
the deathbringers come
buzzing headfirst into the ground.
We dance upon their shattered corpses
crushing evil eyes beneath our heels –
every victory
a tomorrow gained
for our children
for our loves.
And now you’ve caught me.
So what?
I have a million sisters;
we’re all made the same.
I do not fear the silence.
We will tear death down
with song.

Cindy Potts is responsible for a staggering amount of the copy you find on your favorite small business website. In between times, she writes short stories, perpetually unfinished novels, and the very occasional poem. Find out more at cbpotts.livejournal.com or follow her voluminous, funny, profanity filled Twitter @cbpotts.